Gray Skies For The Usually Red Hot Fourth

July 07, 1992

It was a gloomy Fourth of July from the hills to the harbors.

Weather forecasters, who predicted breaks in the showers and clouds, had offered rays of hope that were extinguished by one raindrop after another. Only a handful of the scheduled fireworks displays were held. Those that went on, such as the fireworks at the Portland fairgrounds, were testimony to the pluck of the organizers and the forbearance of the rain-soaked viewers. Beach goers stayed home or shifted to indoor activities. People planning to do yard work had to pick their moments or clean the attic instead.

Yet all those clouds were unable to darken the spirit of the holiday. Certainly the colonists did not need a sunny day to declare independence and start a revolution.

Across the state, neighbors and friends gathered despite the iffy weather. One benefit of sunless picnics is cooler conditions for games of volleyball, softball or boccie. Backyard grills were lighted to cook the mountains of hamburgers, hot dogs and holiday steaks that had been laid in to celebrate independence and the three-day weekend. Kids kept raiding the soda cooler as their parents looked the other way -- after all, even with the rain, it was a holiday.

Perhaps the weather can be credited with keeping spirits from getting too far out of control. The usual list of state motor vehicle accidents was mercifully short and included no major crashes or fatalities.

A final shower woke many early Monday morning, adding meteorological insult to misery, just before the weather cleared in time for the work week